A digital Silk Road inspired by China’s Belt and Road Initiative
- Group of academics from Austria in Hong Kong to promote new international exchange platform
The Europe Goes Silk Road team was in Hong Kong this week on the last leg of their 33,000km journey across Europe and Asia, which started in Vienna and will end in Beijing.
The team met Lee George Lam, chairman of financial technology hub Cyberport to discuss their idea for an international exchange platform, described as “like Amazon, but for experts to find each other”, which they plan to call “Marcovision”, after the explorer Marco Polo.
“We think Hong Kong is the perfect place to launch a network like this because of its central role in the Silk Road and the European and Asian mix within its identity,” says Florian Krendl, who handles public relations for Europe Goes Silk Road.
He says they hope to raise funds for their idea through venture capitalists in the city.
The idea stemmed from a road trip planned by global history student Sebastien Holler, 27, along the Silk Road. After meeting with co-founders Sebastien Maier, a 28-year-old civil engineering student, international business student Krendl, 27, and Maximilian Auer, 23, who studies business informatics, they decided to link their trip to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, known in Europe as the “New Silk Road”.